


Do Not Dare To Not Dare

by xisuthros



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Major Character Injury, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, The feels, This anon just wanted me to suffer, Tumblr Prompt, but its okay, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 03:18:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8354824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xisuthros/pseuds/xisuthros
Summary: Jemma hates the fact she has a soul-mark. Everyone who has a tattoo-like mark on their skin since birth is destined to be with the person who has the same mark. She refused to be a pawn in destiny's game. That is until she meets a young engineer by the name of Leo Fitz...





	

Jemma never really liked the fact she had a soul-mate mark.

Not the actual concept, mind you. Having someone be your soulmate would be incredible, each day filled with more joy and love than the last. She longed for someone that she could share her day with, to love without holding anything back. No, it was the predestination that Jemma had a problem with. What right did the universe have to give her a mark on her shoulder that indicated she had a potential soulmate out there?

It had been the cause of many of her ended relationships. Most felt uncomfortable being with someone who they knew in the back of their minds was destined to be with someone else. The few who didn’t care at first soon reached the same conclusion a few months in. It had gotten to the point that Jemma was considering giving up on dating altogether. Having her loves leave her time after time, all for some stupid cosmic tattoo, was getting too much for her heart to bear.

Then she met an engineer by the name of Leopold Fitz.

They became fast friends at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, each a genius with Ph.D.s at sixteen (two on her part, a fact she loved rubbing in his face). He was funny, sweet, incredibly smart, and had a symmetrical face with startling blue eyes (not that she noticed or anything). It wasn’t long before people started melding their names together due to their seemingly psychic connection with each other. Fitzsimmons. They were the pride of the Academy, graduating faster than anyone else ever had, each creating inventions that would become the standard for agents everywhere and the bar for any potential genius student at the Academy. 

All the while, Jemma tried to not fall for him. She really, really tried. 

Every time he would make a particularly witty comment, or tilt his head back that way he did when he laughed, or the way his brow furrowed in concentration when he was working on a particularly stubborn problem, she felt a little more of her heart become his. Sooner than she was willing to admit, Jemma had fallen completely in love with Leo Fitz.

But she couldn’t tell him. No, that would be an incredibly dumb move. 

What if it ruined their friendship? What if he didn’t have a soul-mark? Or worse, what if he did and it wasn’t matching hers? That would mean some other person was destined for him, a concept that made her physically ill. Oh god, what if he decided to leave her? These fears kept her mouth shut for years, fearful of what he might say if he found out his best friend was unequivocally in love with him. 

Then people around her began finding their soulmates; Coulson with Agent May, Daisy with Lincoln, Bobbi with Hunter, hell, even Mack with Elena. Fitz started dating again for the first time since the Academy, something that was the cause of many heartaches and sleepless nights for Jemma. She tried to date a guy named Will, but every time she looked at him, all she felt was an emptiness that would end the moment that she was back with her best friend. It lasted all of a few months before she broke it off and tortured herself with fantasizing about what would happen if she could just pluck up the courage to tell Fitz how she’d felt about him for all these years.

Fitz suddenly became single, which had tested her poker face when he had told her during their morning inventory of the lab. It had taken every ounce of strength within her to keep from grinning. Instead, she allowed her heart to do back-flips within her chest and smiled quietly to herself once she was sure he had left the room. But still the ache in her being returned, and Jemma found herself making silent deals to whatever force that drove the universe that Fitz was her soulmate. She would give anything. She’d even accept the concept of destiny and that the universe had a plan if it meant that Fitz felt the same way. But still the fear kept her in place, her worst fear being that he would leave if her feelings were not returned.

Then he got shot.

It had been a routine mission (for their standards anyways), simple Inhuman extraction from a potential hot spot. The Watchdogs had broken into the S.H.I.E.L.D. servers to gain access to Inhuman profiles and locations, something that they were actively trying to protect. During the mission, Fitz had stepped in front of her to prevent a series of bullets shot by a lone Watchdog from reaching its intended target. She had stood there, frozen in shock as he seemed to fall in slow-motion, his beautiful blue eyes squeezed shut in pain as he hit the stone floor. Jemma barely registered Daisy taking out the Watchdog agent and rushing over to meet them.

Instantly, her training all came rushing back, fueled on by a frantic need for him to stay alive. He had to. HE HAD TO. It was not an option, losing him. Jemma felt tears stream down her cheeks as she pressed his wounds, willing the bleeding to stop and for him to stay alive long enough to be transferred to a medical facility. 

“Jemma.” He croaked. She had to lean in to hear what he was saying. “If I don’t make it out of this…I just want you to know-” She cut him off, shaking her head furiously.

“No! You do not get to do this to me, Fitz! Don’t you dare say another word.” Her words were more sobs than anything else. Her head grasped at what eh was trying to say, but her heart was too caught up in keeping him alive. “You will NOT die today! Do you hear me? Not without me!” She felt Daisy’s eyes on her at her last sentence. “We’re going to fix you up, Fitz. You’re going to be good as new, and I’ll get to kill you myself for scaring me like this.” A watery laugh escaped Fitz just before his eyes fluttered and he lost consciousness. “Fitz?” She asked desperately. “Fitz! Wake up!” Tears began to cloud her vision and drop onto his wounds, and Jemma felt Daisy’s hand on her shoulder as she called again for help.

Mack came running over take him to the waiting quinjet, his face grave. Jemma refused to release his hand, holding on to it all the way back to the base like he was a lifeline and she was drowning. Three agents had to pry her off of him as he was taken into surgery. She broke down in the waiting room, with May coming over to give her someone to hold onto. 

“It’s okay, Jemma.” The agent said into her hair. “He’s going to pull through.” Jemma gripped her arm like she had Fitz’s hand, vaguely sensing the rest of the team waiting with her. It was not until the doctor came out to say the surgery had been a success did she let go of May, promptly rushing through the doors that led to his room, no longer caring about protocol or any rules that kept her away from him.

The sight of Fitz in a hospital bed nearly brought her to her knees, but Jemma managed to make it to his side and resumed her grip on his hand. She looked up to the ceiling and closed her eyes, silently thanking whatever power that be for him being alive. It wasn’t until she looked back down at his pale form did she realize that the doctors had removed his shirt for the surgery. It was not the strangely toned look of his torso that drew her attention (something she definitely would dwell on later and thank Mack for his daily training), but a familiar-looking tattoo on his upper chest. She had never seen Fitz shirtless, so it was a shock to her when she realized that he had a soul-mark.

It took a further few seconds for it to sink in that the mark was the exact same one she had on her shoulder.

Her world ground to a halt in that moment, the realization that she had been silently pining for her actual, real-life soulmate made her laugh and cry at the same time. That she had almost lost him today was a sobering fact that made her lean over and kiss his forehead. She couldn’t waste any more time. Neither of them could. When he awoke, they would finally clear the air, giving words to the thing that had been right in front of them the whole damn time.

If it was her destiny to be with Leo Fitz, Jemma decided that she would happily let the cosmos win. If that was what it wanted, she was not about to stand in its way.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the grammar in some places! I wrote this late at night in one sitting and didn't have time to edit it very much. I love the soulmate fics that are already written on AO3 and the ones I've found on Tumblr. I hope I did this one justice; there are so many better ones already on here! Thanks for reading guys!


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